Hospital IT departments are collaborating with clinicians more than ever, but burnout remains high for both sides

Health IT and clinical teams see the value of partnerships that help prevent medical errors and improve clinical decision support, but both sides are also seeing high rates of burnout.

More than half of respondents on both the clinical side and the IT side indicated they are partnering to define system requirements for health IT solutions, according to a survey conducted by HIMSS Analytics and commissioned by Vocera. More than half of all respondents also said clinical and IT team leaders talk to frontline staff members to identify technologies that can improve care.

RELATED: What's next for outdated CIO and CMIO partnerships?

CMIOs and CIOs have pushed to transform existing partnerships to drive value-based care, while payers and providers have increasingly built data partnerships to improve quality and drive down costs.

But members of both teams are seeing high rates of burnout. Eighty-three percent of IT respondents indicated they were either “somewhat” or “moderately” burned out, and 64% indicated that burnout was due to not having the budget or resources to meet demands.

One-fifth of respondents indicated that burnout was driven by clinical teams that were difficult to work with.

RELATED: 2017—A year of emerging technologies, partnerships and value-based care

On the clinical side, respondents overwhelmingly said technology was a contributor to burnout among doctors and nurses, supporting past surveys that show EHRs hamper physician satisfaction. However, many also indicated that technology that improves workflow can be a solution to clinician burnout.